There are plenty of reasons that government wanted control of it in terms of
public usage. But the expertise was largely private. I see many named
individuals - and private institutions in the article introduction.
The "commercialization" piece of the article reads as if the entire private
sector had to come to to "learn how it all worked". They use the term
"Vendors". Vendors sell products and services; they do not necessarily
invent, design and develope them. Telecommunications vendors by and large
sell *services*. What is left out is the fact that the whole system was
built with technology and component systems invented, designed and built for
the most part by the private sector, classified or not, over a long period
of time. And the whole thing started in the mind of Mr. Licklider.
Government? Naaaah!
The history of telecommunications in this country is a similar example -
rail and air transportation a couple more.
Cheers,
Lee
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Tom Scales" <tscales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] Further on technology (R&D)
Yes, they did. The Internet is a direct derivitive of US Government work.
Originally started as ARPANET, it was just internal to the government. It
then, if I remember, expanded to universities and was only reluctantly
opened to the public.
There's a brief history at:
http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml
But it CLEARLY was a government project. There were parallel projects in
packet-switching, but none advanced like the DARPA project.
Tom
> You must be thinking of Al G's silly and fraudulent claim ;) No wonder he
> grew a beard and started wearing plaid shirts.
>
> But government - in any country - did not "invent" the internet. That is
> certainly just not true.
<snip
> Cheers
> Lee
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